Ramiel is proud, but he doesn’t know why.
He doesn’t know that he is the child of a golden angel and a once-statue. He is the residue of heaven’s wind rushing over earth’s iron, creating something in-between and yet, entirely unique. He is born of a king and a kingdom’s lady, a prince in his own right. He is all of these things he knows nothing about. Later, his mother would tell him his history. Later, she’d untangle the root-like stories of his ancestors – those distant and less so. But simply knowing won’t change him, anyway.
The black colt’s pride surfaces at the atomic level.
It’s there next to the electrons as they spin around the nucleus; it’s there bubbling under the surface of his black skin. When he looks across his homeland, he feels a pride as intrinsic and deep as his sense of self. But this feeling doesn’t solely fill him. Clamoring for space in his still baby-new heart is a great desire to do good and to be good. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and already, he carries the weight of potential wrongs.
The Dale suffers a miserably hot summer day, but Ramiel doesn’t mind. He is away from mother for the time being, and when he flicks his black and gold forelock away from his eyes, he surveys the land with subdued curiosity. It is all open to him, the mountain land. Their numbers are so few that those remaining have banded together. Most of the Dale remains desolately quiet, and as much as Ramiel longs for adventure, he remembers how dangerous mother said it was to stray too far.
He hesitates on the edge of that safe zone. River water splashes on his small hooves as he wavers on the banks. The water continues on its path into the unknown, heedless of and blind to the consequences it will later face. Ramiel wants that kind of strength, that surety. He flicks his ears, listening, debating. On the other side of the river (and where he could cross easily in the shallows) the land grew more wild. Bears and wolves trekked up and down the mountain foothills in search of young colts who disobeyed, Talulah had told him. This made the potential for exploration even greater, as far as Ramiel was concerned, but still he stayed his feet. Because pride gave him the courage to wander, but his sense of right and wrong held him back.
He lingers by the water’s edge, anyway. It was as wide a world as he was allowed, for now, and he would take every opportunity he could get.
r a m i e l
what a day to begin again